Logos and Revolution: The Search for a Living Language in the Ruins (The Case of Nadezhda Murav’eva’s Odigitriia)

This article addresses two central themes in the novel Odigitriia [Hodegetria] (2013) by contemporary Russian writer Nadezhda Murav’eva. The first theme is the difficulty of self-discovery in the context of the collapse of the traditional structures through which human identity is constructed (what can a person rely on when all connections seem fragile and deceptive?). The second theme is the search for a language to reinterpret once-endured national traumas (what sacred things, words, and meanings are subject to inflation in turbulent times? How can one find a living language amidst a flood of empty words, incoherence, and vulgar vernacular?). The drama of the novel lies in the transition of the characters from a question imposed by the revolutionary era (how to survive?) to a metaphysical question (how to live?), from eschatological panic to the soteriology of hope.